Lou Schneider

He's been active on The RV Forum (www.rvforum.net).

Aren't these self-inflicted problems? The guy is complaining because 1) he's using the Home Internet outside of the Terms of Service (at multiple locations instead of just at the registered address) and it's not working as advertised.  I presume the reason T-Mobile is doing a gradual rollout of their Home Internet is to ensure they have adequate 5G capacity at the registered address to support this kind of heavy use.  2) T-Mobile charged him for the modem when he attempted to return it after the 15 day trial period.  Cell phones are the same way, no?  You'll be charged for that "free" cell phone if you cancel service before the phone is amortized.

Another point is when you're backing, drive the trailer wheels to where you want them to end up.  Don't aim the back end of the trailer as it will move back and forth as the trailer pivots over it's wheels.  It's also easier to back into a space on the driver's side because you can see the trailer better than backing into a space on the passenger side.

Something to remember is any third party provider is at the mercy of the carrier actually providing the service.  Putting aside any claims of impropriety, cell carriers have a long history of abruptly cutting off third party providers, usually when they become too successful and start using more data than the carrier anticipated.   When this happens the third party company is SOL and unless they can line up another carrier they are unable to provide service to their customers.   It happened to me 10 years ago before I retired - we were using Milennicom to provide data service to a dozen or so remote transmitter sites and had to find another source on short notice when Verizon cancelled Milennicom's master contract.  (we wound up getting an educational discount package directly from Verizon since the station was owned by a college).   

As Chris Dunphy of Technomadia puts it, any third party plan works until it doesn't.

As far as Nomad Internet's ad still appearing here, I think it's just another indication of the relative lack of attention Escapees gives to this forum.

2 hours ago, GlennWest said:

With some many windmills in Texas surprised it only list natural gas

That map shows the primary source of power in each state. Natural gas is Texas's primary source of electricity at 47% of it's total.  20% comes from coal, 10% from nuclear and 1% from solar.  Wind power is tied with coal at 20%. 

This points out one of renewable energy's big drawbacks. Besides needing to keep conventional power plants spinning in hot standby to take over at a moment's notice - winds die down and clouds obstruct the sun - renewable energy needs lots of land to generate significant amounts of power.  Such land may be available in Texas, but not in the more densely populated areas of the country where the majority of the electricity is used.

https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/2020/august/ercot.php

Nor do mobile home parks in CA typically have vacant spaces due to the complexity and expense of moving the home.  Usually mobile homes are sold in place and before the purchase is finalized the new owner has to be approved by the park before becoming a new resident.

23 hours ago, RVLife4Me said:

There is a bill coming before the Housing Committee in California to stop the practice of the "6-Month-Shuffle."  It is AB 1472.  It's to protect people from being evicted and face homelessness due to this bad business practice.  

We need stories of places and cities where the mobile home or rv park owners are requiring the tenants of the park to move before 9 months are up to avoid a change in tenancy status.  

Assemblymember David Alvarez is sponsoring AB 1472 to expand the prohibition of the "6-month-shuffle" to the entire state of California.  This is the practice of making RV residents move before 9 months have elapsed in the same place because the park owners want to avoid the change in tenancy from "tenants" to "residents," under Civil Code section 799.31.

The bill is coming before the Housing Committee hearing on 4/26/2023 at 9:00 a.m.!  (If you are in Sacramento, please come help support the bill.)

Has anyone on here experienced this unfair business practice?  What parks and what cities?  Any help on this is greatly appreciated.  Also, if you want to support AB 1472, please reach out!
 

You may call it a "bad" or "unfair" business practice but AB 1472 as presently written takes the wrong approach to the problem and will have exactly opposite the intended effect. I lived in an RV for over 10 years in several CA RV parks before I retired and I can tell you if a park can't reset the residency clock by doing the "shuffle" and letting someone come back under a new lease, all that will happen is parks will lock people out for the remainder of the year until the legal clock resets.

The underlying issue is having someone obtain resident status after being in the park for 9 months as stated in CA Civil Code Section 799. This is what should be corrected, not adding a new section that prohibits resetting the residency clock while leaving the residential status intact.

Gaining residential status greatly complicates removing a troublemaker's RV from the park, for causes including non-payment of rent.  It drags the process out from a simple 1 day or 1 week written notice to a full blown court ordered eviction with at least 60 days written notice  Meanwhile the resident gets to stay in the RV park while the process plays out.  This is the same as evicting someone from a house or from an apartment.

An RV is defined as something that provides short term, portable living quarters.  It's much easier to re-locate an RV than getting the necessary permits to move a mobile home or packing up and moving someone's belongings out of a house or an apartment. 

If you make it illegal for RV parks to reset someone's status to occupant or tenant via the "shuffle" all that will happen is the parks will lock them out for the rest of the year until the legal clock resets.   Many motels in CA already do this, capping their length of stay at 14 days to preserve their right to expeditiously get rid of troublemakers.

On 4/17/2023 at 6:22 PM, rickeieio said:

Hmmm...  I wonder how much CO2 is released by carbonated beverages?  Ban all soft drinks!!!!!  But not beer.

You have it backwards.  CO2 in sodas is captured from the atmosphere, then re-released as carbonation.  Net gain = 0.

Beer, on the other hand, creates new CO2 from the fermentation.  So logically beer should be banned first.

I used to live in that area.  The most direct route is to take the ferry from Edmonds to Kingston, then Hwys 104 and 19 to Port Hadlock.  If it's a clear day the view from the ferry's passenger deck is spectacular.  Unless you want to see other stuff on Whidbey Island it's a long way up and around to get to the Keystone (Coupeville) - Pt Townsend ferry.   The other factor is Edmonds to Kingston is a major crossing and has frequent service with large boats.   You'll have no problem getting your rig on or off the ferry, large trucks use it all the time.  The Keystone - Port Townsend ferry uses smaller boats, runs less frequently and sometimes has runs cancelled if the tidal currents are too strong at Keystone.

If you can avoid rush hour traffic, it's actually about the same amount of time (including the average wait for the next ferry) to go south on I-5 through Seattle to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, then north via WA 16 and 3 to the Hood Canal floating bridge (free), then 104 and 19 to Port Hadlock.   Tacoma Narrows Bridge only collects toll in the eastbound direction, you'll be going on the free side.  These are mostly 4 lane freeways up to the Hood Canal Bridge, then wide and easy 2 lane highways past there.

2 hours ago, markandkim said:

How much is the electric in your situation?

At 11.9 cents per Kwh and using one air conditioner or electric heater depending on the season my monthly electric bill runs about $50-60.  Your rate will vary depending on how much you pay per Kwh - my sister pays 25 cents per Kwh in California.

Wait until that small and lightweight tow vehicle hits a patch of gravel and the trailer mass starts pushing it from behind the rear axle.  Backing up must be interesting also with two pivot points between the tow vehicle and the trailer.

The link is misspelled.  The final "g" is not part of the link.

3 hours ago, GeorgiaHybrid said:

Trimster, get yourself a DC/AC amp clamp to help troubleshoot electrical issues. It will allow you to see the amps your load is pulling and also the voltage drop in a circuit.

Three things I always keep as far as electrical testers go. A GOOD DVOM, a decent DC/AC amp clamp and for DC circuits, a Power Probe 3 or 4 to check and apply grounds and battery voltage in a circuit. For those not really familar with electrical work, look into taking a class or two at your local technical school.

Be careful when comparing clamp on ammeters.  Not all can measure DC current flowing through the clamp.   It's common to find an inexpensive meter that measures AC and DC voltage via it's test leads but will only measure AC current flowing through the clamp.

I have and like this one.  Note that it specifically says it measures both AC and DC current.  Reasonably priced and has a lot of neat features like true RMS AC voltage and current measurements and a built-in NCV (Non-Contact Voltage detector) to help you avoid or trace energized AC circuits.  Watch the short videos in the listing to see how these features work.

https://www.amazon.com/KAIWEETS-Multimeter-Auto-ranging-Temperature-Capacitance/dp/B07Z398YWF

Too bad the video is now unavailable - someone made it private.  Too graphic?

3 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

As I'm sure you know, Lou, RV city water inlets typically include a check valve that prevents water from back feeding in to the source.

Right, and I pointed that out in my post.   The  OP was asking about putting an accumulator tank outside the RV, which would need a one way valve to prevent pressure from bleeding back into the shore feed.

On 3/6/2023 at 4:48 PM, Anawilliam850 said:

To install an accumulator tank, you'll need to connect it to your water supply line. You'll want to install it as close to your water source as possible, ideally right next to the faucet. You can use a tee fitting to connect the accumulator tank to the water supply line, and then connect the faucet to the other end of the tee fitting.

You'll also need a one way valve between the accumulator tank and the incoming water line or the higher pressure in the accumulator will just backfeed into the incoming line until it's pressure matches the supply pressure.   Your RV has such a valve inside the fresh water inlet, which is why water doesn't come out when you are disconnected from shore water.

Even then, you'll only have higher pressure until the accumulator tank is emptied.  Usually they only hold a couple of gallons unless you get a larger one designed for a well pump.

If it was me, I'd just use the RV's water tank and pump to supplement the shore water pressure when needed.

When I attended the CDL driving school, the written test was administered at the local DMV office under the same conditions as a private applicant.  Two state driving examiners came to the school's site to administer the pre-trip inspections and driving tests as a matter of convenience instead of having three dozen applicants along with the school's trucks and trailers clogging up the DMV office.   The driving test was identical to what would have been administered to a private applicant, in fact a couple of private CDL applicants and their vehicles were accommodated at the same time.

"Every wire is hot" is a sign of a missing ground.  Without a ground all points in the circuit are pulled up to the supply voltage.  The test light doesn't draw enough current to replace the ground so it lights up when it sees voltage on the should-be-grounded side of the bulb.

Do it!  I took a similar 4 week course at a private company when I got my CDL.  The  regulatory stuff is but a small part of the classroom instruction, most of it is practical knowledge like how to do a pre-trip inspection, how air brakes work and their limitations, how to shift a non-synchronized transmission, how to handle a blowout, defensive driving, etc.  Then there's the on the road instruction which is invaluable.  They'll likely even arrange for a DMV representative to come in and administer the CDL driving test at the end of the course.  BTW, I decided I didn't want to be an over the road driver about midway through but continued to the end to get my Class A license.

12 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

Just this year: Lithium starting battery. It's very expensive too.

They showed these last January (2022) at the Quartzsite Big Tent.

I have a 1997 Safari motorhome with the Chevy 454 gas engine and a pair of Lion Safari UT1300 house batteries.  When the Optima starting battery failed due to an internal defect (one of the posts became disconnected internally) in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada they easily started the engine via the Boost switch for the remainder of my trip.  I wouldn't recommend them as starting batteries but a pair does work in a pinch.

What do you want to know?

Check the connections under the trailer, where the wire from the front branches off to the axles. Not conducting and then breaking through under higher voltage is the classic sign of a corroded connection.  The last trailer I owned used regular non-weatherproofed wire nuts where the axle wires fanned off from the main harness and of course the connections became corroded over time.

21 hours ago, superyooper said:

Mobile home parks are being bought by large corporations across the country and as a result the lot rents are tripling. The same applies for apartments and condo's in Florida. No rent controls in place to protect people so it's a win win for the corporation. Low income people on social security are in for some hard times.

That's one of the reasons I decided to invest in getting a lot in one of the Escapees co-op parks instead of a mobile home in a commercial park for my retirement.  As a co-op the park and all it's amenities are owned and controlled by the members so there's no chance of the land being sold out from underneath.

18 hours ago, hemsteadc said:

Quartzsite dry camping would about as cheap as you can get.. $180 for 6 months in the  LTVA areas with garbage, water and  dump.  Bring your own  electricity.

It's $180 from the date you buy the permit until the April 15 end of the LTVA season, so whether or not you get the full 6 months depends on when you arrive and leave.  If you buy the permit when the LTVAs open on Sept 15 you can actually stay 7 months until April 15th for the $180, if you buy it later in the season (or leave earlier) you'll be charged the same but it will only be good for a shorter term, which raises the monthly cost. 

Quartzsite and Yuma get hot outside of maybe December to the end of February, if you'll be staying 8 weeks or less it's cheaper to get the renewable $40 for two week permits.

1 hour ago, ddm502001 said:

Most HD Diesels even with a top end around 2000rpm will not develop decent torque until 1850 or less RPM, are using fuel and making HP where rolling mass in engine is developing work but until gets into torque curve region as set by fuel delivery parameters will they make peak torque.  With that in mind on flatland with no heavy head or severe side wind can attain decent economy even on upper rpm above torque region as just floating.

And even as Cummins built the PACCAR Engines, they tend to run and hide for service work, get that from a number of people running them.

The Cummins engines in the old London buses would run for multiple millions of miles but were redlined at 1000 RPM.  When I rode one in Victoria and the driver would be constantly shifting as soon as the engine got barely above idle.